Design of advanced biofuels through optimisation of fuel molecular structure

Future advanced biofuels will require the integration of new chemical and biological processes and advanced combustion technologies. The heavy reliance worldwide on abundant fossil fuels over the last 50 years means that the development of new sustainable sources of fuels and associated technologies must follow a steep research and development curve over the next 20 to 30 years.

Fossils fuels have driven industrial growth for the past two hundred years, however, the security of supply and the continued sustainability of utilising such fuels is increasingly uncertain. The accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels is resulting in global climate change, and supplies of the most easily extracted sources of liquid fossil fuels are diminishing.

Currently utilized biofuels for internal combustion engines derived from vegetable crops reduce tailpipe emissions of fossil bound carbon, but there are increasing concerns that producing fuels from crops that compete with food production may not be a sustainable approach. Furthermore, current bio-fuels require a further processing step after crop harvesting before they are fit for purpose; for example, vegetable oils must be heated and reacted with an alcohol before they can be used as bio-diesel.

Advances in chemical engineering and molecular biology are opening new routes for the production of biofuels that do not compete with food crops, for example from waste biomass or photosynthetic micro-organisms (such as micro-algae). Proposed EU regulation will favour the use of these advanced biofuels and demand that they contribute 5 % of all liquid fuels for road transport in the EU by 2020.

In this Fellowship, I will investigate prototype fuels for spark ignition and diesel engines, identified in collaboration with researchers and industry working on the chemical and biological conversion processes for producing advanced biofuels. One such collaboration will continue with UCL's Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology who have developed methods of genetically engineering photo-synthetic micro-organisms to increase rates of fuels production, and also alter the fuel molecular make-up.

The structure in which individual atoms are arranged to create a fuel molecule impacts significantly on how the molecule performs as a fuel, and my investigations will determine which features of advanced biofuel molecular structure are most desirable. Identifying features which can be achieved through chemical and biological production methods will guide the development of these processes. This will guide further combustion experiments, resulting in the iterative design of advanced biofuels on a molecular level for sustainable production and use.

The benefits of designing processes for production of advanced biofuels to include features of molecular structure that result in fuels that are cleaner in production and combustion than current fossil and bio-derived fuels are timely and with potentially world-wide impact. European and UK legislation will require that as of 2020 all liquid fuels for road vehicles will comprise of 5 % advanced biofuels, that do not compete with food production, so as to address both environmental and security of supply concerns.

The reductions in vehicle exhaust pollutants, such as NOx and particulates matter, that will arise in the intelligent design of advanced biofuels will benefit the health of urban populations and the local environment. Both NOx and particulate matter can induce respiratory ailments (with soot from diesel exhaust recently identified as a carcinogen) and cause structural damage to buildings. Furthermore, control of NOx and particulate matter through fuel design may augment the use of devices such as diesel particulate filters that reduce engine efficiency and increase carbon dioxide emissions. This Fellowship will therefore deliver reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, from both improvements in engine efficiency and displacement with non-fossil biofuels; the impacts of this are world-wide nature as such reductions are necessary to prevent further global climate change.

The results of the proposal will be entirely novel, as no such interdisciplinary study to optimize the design of advanced biofuels has been previously reported. The knowledge gained from this research will be at a fundamental level and it will be published in leading international journals and presented at leading international meetings. The results will thus form a seminal contribution to the UK's international research standing in the field of fuels and combustion. In the course of conducting this Fellowship I will gain many new skills in project management, industry collaboration and dissemination of results. Furthermore, the results obtained during this Fellowship will allow me to secure funding to further the research, beyond the scope of the fellowship, from research councils and collaboration with industry (eg. EPSRC, TSB, ERC, BP, Shell).

Within the UK, the economic beneficiaries of knowledge of advanced biofuel design will include major energy and fuel companies such as BP and Shell, and fuel additive companies such as Innospec. Vehicle manufactures with facilities in the UK, such as Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Nissan will benefit from the opportunity to ensure that future powertrain designs are compatible with the new generation of advanced biofuels. Meanwhile, high technology and agile small and medium size enterprises involved in renewable energy, such as Cella Energy Limited, will be able to incorporate the cutting edge understanding generated into their developing business plans.

Outside of the energy sector, biotech firms, such Algenuity, will benefit from improvements in the production of biofuels from micro-organisms. Business owners and operators in the UK agricultural sector will see an increase in value of products previously considered a waste stream (such as lignocellulosic biomass) as routes for biofuel production from these are developed.